Chapters 29–32

Chapters 29–32

Chapters 29–32

Chapters 29–32

Chapters 29–32

Chapters 29–32

Summary: Chapter 29

The chapter begins with a description of Mrs. Maylie,
the mistress of the house at which Oliver is shot. She is a kindly,
old-fashioned elderly woman. Her niece, Miss Rose, is an angelic
beauty of seventeen. Mr. Losberne, the eccentric local bachelor
surgeon, arrives in a fluster, stating his wonderment at the fact
that neither woman is dead of fright at having a burglar in their
house. He proceeds to attend to Oliver for a long while. When he
returns, he asks the women if they have actually seen the thief.
They have not, and, since Giles has enjoyed the commendations for
his bravery, he has not told the women that the thief he shot is
a small boy. The ladies accompany the surgeon to see the culprit
for the first time.

Summary: Chapter 30

Upon seeing Oliver, Miss Rose exclaims that he cannot
possibly be a burglar unless older, evil men have forced him into
the trade. She begs her aunt not to send the child to prison. Mrs.
Maylie replies that she intends to send him to prison nonetheless.
They wait all day for Oliver to awake in order to determine whether
he is a bad child or not. Oliver relates his life history to them
that evening, bringing tears to the eyes of his audience. Mr. Losberne
hurries downstairs and asks if Giles and Brittles can swear before
the constable that Oliver is the same boy they saw in the house
the night before. Meanwhile, police officers from London, summoned
by Brittles and Giles that morning, arrive to assess the situation.

Summary: Chapter 31

Duff and Blathers, the officers, examine the crime scene,
while the surgeon and the women try to think of a way to conceal
Oliver’s part in the crime. The officers determine that two men
and a boy were involved, judging from the footprints and the size
of the window. Mr. Losberne tells them that Giles merely mistook
Oliver for the guilty party. He tells them that Oliver was wounded
accidentally by a spring-gun while trespassing on a neighbor’s property.
Giles and Brittles state that they cannot swear that he is the boy
they saw that night. The officers depart and the matter is settled
without incident.

Summary: Chapter 32

Who can tell how scenes of peace and
quietude sink into the minds of pain-worn dwellers in close and
noisy places, and carry their own freshness deep into their jaded
hearts!

Over a period of weeks, Oliver slowly begins to recover.
He begs for some way to repay his benefactors’ kindness. They tell
him he can do so after he recovers his health. He laments not being
able to tell Brownlow and Mrs. Bedwin what has happened to him.
Mr. Losberne takes Oliver to London to see them. To Oliver’s bitter
disappointment, he and Losberne discover that Brownlow, Mrs. Bedwin, and
Mr. Grimwig have moved to the West Indies. Mrs. Maylie and Miss
Rose then take him to the countryside. In the blissful rural environment,
Oliver’s health improves vastly, as do his reading and writing skills.
He and the ladies become greatly attached to each other during the
months they spend there.

Analysis: Chapters 29–32

Through Rose’s reaction to Oliver, Dickens presents delinquency
as a problem determined by culture rather than by innate character. Upon
seeing Oliver, Rose imagines his entire history at a glance. Unlike
most adults who have tried to second-guess him, Rose’s hypotheses
about his past and personality are accurate. She surmises that Oliver
took part in the attempted burglary because he has never “known
a mother’s love” or because he suffered “ill-usage and blows” and
“the want of bread.” She names all the miserable conditions of poverty
that may have “driven him to herd with men who have forced him to
guilt.” Like Brownlow, and unlike the English legal system, the
Maylies believe in forgiveness and kindness. Dickens uses these
characters, who believe that Oliver is innately good but born into
a bad environment, to show that vices can be combated by improving
the material conditions of the poor rather than by punishing them.
The Maylies recognize that Oliver’s surroundings have determined
his behavior but not necessarily his nature, and, as a result, for
the first time in his life Oliver is given the chance to narrate
his life history on his own terms. This event is an important step
in establishing his identity as separate from his surroundings.

The Maylie household in effect simulates a benevolent
courtroom, giving Oliver a voice and actually listening to that
voice. In this capacity, the courtroom of the Maylie household is
wholly different from the typical courtroom of the English legal
system. In the courtroom of Mr. Fang, which Dickens depicts in the
novel, Oliver is not permitted to testify on his own behalf. Moreover,
even in the absence of conclusive evidence, the magistrate still
convicts him of the crime of pickpocketing. In the courtroom of
the Maylie household, Oliver not only testifies for himself, but
he also admits his part in the attempted burglary. However, rather
than convict him, his testimony exonerates him, since the Maylies
are more concerned with the fact that Oliver can be saved from committing
further crimes than with punishing him for the crime that he committed. For
the Maylies, Oliver’s entire history and personality matter more than
any single action of his.